ID Guide

One of Ireland’s most distinctive flowers, the snowdrop is often the first flower to appear in the year. Like many over-wintering bulbs the snowdrop requires a period of sharp cold in order to germinate correctly. […]

The Comma is one of our most distinctive species, its butchered wings give a unique appearance that differs from any other species of butterfly in Ireland. The comma is not a widespread species and is […]

The Small Blue butterfly is the smallest species of butterfly in Ireland and also has quite a restricted range, only being found in certain areas across the country. As mentioned above, the Small Blue is […]

Ireland has three blue butterfly species, the Common Blue (which we’ll be looking at in this post) the Holly Blue and Ireland’s smallest butterfly the aptly named Small Blue. These species are quite distinctive, once […]

The Peacock Butterfly is one of our most distinctive butterfly species, it is large and brightly coloured and once seen, it is not easily forgotten. This species follows on from the last two in that […]

Flabellina pedata unfortunately has no common name (though is sometimes synonymised as Doris pedata or Coryphella pedata). It is a species of Nudibranch, a marine mollusc, so called as their gills are not enclosed and […]

The Red Admiral butterfly is perhaps one of the best known species, even if people haven’t seen the species, most will recognise the name. The species also follows on nicely from our last profile on […]

Rare or under recorded? This common inshore fish can be difficult to identify in the wild due to the presence of 2 other similar dragonet species in Irish inshore waters, the common (Callionymus lyra) and […]

There are over 30 species of butterfly found in Ireland, some which carry out their full life cycle here and others which migrate. As with many other taxonomic groups there are some species which have […]

Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) – Ruithéal rí – Geraniaceae Herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum) is perhaps one of our best known native wildflower in the Geranium family. This beautiful little pink flower is accustomed to growing in […]